When I am home around dinner time, I whip up a cup or so of Honest Kitchen and put some raw chicken chunks in it for our dog. My hubby on the other hand, doesn't like dealing with raw meat and isn't on board with cleaning up the floor where Nikolai takes his pieces out and drops them on the floor before actually *eating* them, so instead, he goes the kibble/canned food route. I suppose this is OK as my dog is still getting fed, but we're almost out of kibble and I don't really want to go buy more. Anyway, I guess my question is, how do you convince a raw-meat-a-phobe to suck it up and just do it for the sake of our dog?

Oh, and he doesn't want his Mom to know we feed raw - when she came over for Super Bowl Sunday, he asked me to keep his "raw" meal in the fridge and just serve kibble/canned, so she wouldn't have to see Nikolai crunching bones... I guess it skeeves him out. I've tried crating him and feeding him outside, neither of which work (he looks at me like, "What'd I do wrong?").

Well that certainly makes it a lot harder if your husband is feeding him. I had an easier time convincing my husband because I'm the one that feeds the dogs. But I have to say that there are two things that convinced my husband to allow me to feed raw. #1 was money, he was all for it when he learned that it was cheaper than kibble and dehydrated/freeze dried raw. # 2 was that it is better and healthier for the dogs and therefore we'd see better health, cleaner teeth, less health problems equals less moula in the vets pocket, etc. It mostly boiled down to less cost, both directly and indirectly, for my husband.

Maybe get him the book "Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones" by Tom Lonsdale.

I'm a germ-a-phobe (think OCD), and I have issues with handling raw meat (always have) which is why I never thought I'd overcome my issues and be able to feed raw to my dogs. It took time to get over it and what is my driving force is knowing it's the best thing I can do for my dogs. I do still have days that I literally gag over doling out their raw meat. I just try to get it separated out and served as quick as possible. lol

When I feed my sibe indoors I put newspaper on the floor then a placemat and then his bowl or cutting board with meat on top of everything. If he takes his food out of the bowl then it almost always lands on the placemat and if not then it's at least on the newspaper which I just roll up and throw away, easy cleanup. And the placemat I just wash when I wash the dogs' bowls so it really doesn't add any considerable work. Some people use towels that they designate for raw feeding only and feed their dogs raw on those. I prefer newspaper since it's a lot easier to clean up.

*lol* My hubby is super OCD clean-freak, too. It's like "the odd couple" every day at our house. Hahhaa... I'm still trying to find ways to make raw cheaper than kibble/canned, but I have yet to find a place that sells raw meat for super cheap and we're still waiting to get a chest freezer so we can stock up. At this point, the cost is about the same for each, but since we've been going the raw route, Nikolai's teeth have shown AMAZING improvement. Like, night and day better. Oye. I'll keep workin' on him and maybe subscribe to the paper so we have that as an option for cleanup.

Can you just feed him in a crate? I feed mine in their crates or outside if I give them raw, because they too will pull it out of their bowls.

Darn, my house is going to smell like dead fish if I ever get to feeding raw. First of all, anything Ginger can hold in her paws, she will. So if I gave her a small whole fish, I'm afraid she'll take, lay down, and hold it sticking straight up between her paws to eat it. Not only would I have to clean the floor, but I'd have to clean her paws and who knows what depending if she'll be messy. If I have to cut it up so she'll eat it out of her bowl, then my hands will be fishy...and she'll probably want to lick my hands ALL the time since it'll smell like fish!

I guess I better invest in those thin, disposable kitchen gloves....

You're brave to feed fish, I won't come near it. Too smelly for me! You could feed it to her in the kitchen on a towel to reduce the mess. If she holds it with her paws just wipe her paws with a wet wipe before she goes traipsing through the house.